Podcast: Q & A with Vivian Montano of Luna Maya

Vivian Montano, co-owner of LunaMaya, sat down to talk about balancing work and her personal life, living and growing up in Bolivia, atheism, sending herself away to boarding school when she was fifteen-years-old, Fruit Loops, and the power a simple pair of curtains has had on her customers.

image | lunamayarestaurant.com

In 1997, two Bolivian-born sisters, Karla and Vivian Montano, decided to open a restaurant.Twenty years later, their Bolivian-inspired Mexican restaurant, LunaMaya, is widely considered by many to be the most consistent, the classiest, the most crowded, and the coolest restaurant in Southeast Virginia.

Vivian Montano, co-owner of Luna Maya, credits these curtains with creating a unique dining experience at her restaurant: “I think it’s the curtains. Part of it is every time somebody comes in through those curtains they feel like they’re in a little bit of a different world.”

Andrew Paul Cronin is a public school teacher and host of the podcast The Q & A with A. P. C. He graduated from Old Dominion University in 2002 with a Communications degree and worked in the press department for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia.